House prices vs rents: the effects of inflation
As we all know, house prices have gone up massively over the last couple of decades, and much faster than inflation. On the other hand, rents haven’t gone up so quickly – lucky for the 35% of Kiwis (or 38% of Aucklanders) who don’t own the home they live in.…
19 Comments Extending the Northern Busway
Monday’s NZ Herald finally picked up on the Northern Busway extension from Constellation to Albany being left out of the government’s accelerated transport package that was announced as part of the Budget.
Auckland’s successful Northern Busway has been set back by a Government decision to exclude an extension to Albany from an $815 million package of accelerated roading projects.…
Photo of the Day: Harmonic Testing
On Sunday morning Transdev/Kiwirail conducted a large scale test of our electric trains. I understand the trains had been creating harmonics through the lines. This wasn’t affecting trains but was creating impacts outside the network – although I’m not sure of the full extent of the issue.…
Footpath Clutter
When I was out looking at the trial bus shelters on Sunday I was reminded of an issue that plagues our footpaths – clutter. Symonds St where the bus stops are suffers from this quite a bit but by no means is it alone.…
How should we value the future?
Transport networks and urban planning can have extremely long-lived effects on society, the economy, and the environment. The government’s decision to invest in an electrified commuter rail network for Wellington in the 1930s led to an early form of transit-oriented development in the region.…
Photo of the Day: Studio One – Toi Tū
The 1906 Newton Police Station and Barracks at the top of Ponsonby Rd has been re-opened as a creative community space by the Waitemata Local Board called Studio One Toi Tū. And is now graced with a new installation by design company Alt Group.…
Ben Hamilton-Baillie/Auckland Shared Streets
This is an interesting video of Ben Hamilton-Baillie at the recent Congress for the New Urbanism conference (CNU22). Hamilton-Baillie one of the leaders of the progressive street design movement explains how the street delivers the purpose the city- economic exchange, social exchange, and cultural expression, or “money, sex and art” as he quotably sums it up. …
The Trial Bus Shelters
Back in May Auckland Transport announced that they were going to trial three different bus shelter designs on Symonds St. They are seeking public feedback on them with the intention of eventually rolling out the winning design across the region.
Yesterday I decided to go and check out the three options and all three shelters I liked and didn’t like about them.…
Photo of the Day: St Lukes Motorway Median
The motorway lanes at St Lukes have been parted as part of the project to widen the St Lukes Rd bridge. In many other cities when you see the motorway parted like this it would be for a busway or rail line to be installed.…
City centre parking rates: economic literacy versus special pleading
This weekend the NZ Herald’s motoring correspondent Matt Greenop published an article denouncing the “insult” of parking fees. Now, at Transportblog we’re always up for a good debate over the merits of different parking policies, but this doesn’t add much to the conversation:
Parking used to be a doddle.…
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